Warlord Games: Tenth Doctor & Companions

The Tenth Doctor plus Companions, possibly the best loved of the new series Doctors.

And some more UNIT troopers.

Dr Who, Bolt Action, VBCW - A Mitford Gal

One of the Mitford Gals shown with her BMW Sports (in patriotic Red, White and Black), her dog spot, and her current squeeze, Hauptmann Von Klot.

This is an out of production Revell 1:48 kit that is still widely available, from their aircraft accessories range. The Hauptmann is from their Luftwaffe ground crew accessory range.

Suitable for Dr Who or, at a pinch, Bolt Action or VBCW - very tall, the Mitford Gals.

Review Warlord Games 10th Doctor Who

10th Doctor Model Collection

The 10th Doctor comes as a high quality metal model in a box with four assistants, Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, and Wilfred Mot.

The models are a larger scale than usual, the Doctor is 40mm from the bottom of the base to the top of his head. The models are 'to scale': most 28mm models are not true scale, having exaggerated 'cartoon-like' heads and hands and different vertical and horizontal scales.

The sculpting is excellent, being very life like. I have to say the moulding is perfect, and I mean perfect! You can take the models straight out of the box and paint them.

10th Doctor Miniature

The only one I have painted so far is the Doctor himself. The model was really easy to paint as everything is clearly defined. Now, I am not claiming in any way to be a professional painter; I am a pretty average wargamer when it comes to painting, with only mediocre skills whose main aim is to get something acceptable onto the table as fast as possible.

So the photo gives an idea what the average person can achieve.

Rear View

I used Tamiya 'Pavement Effect' paint on the base after building it up with Milliput.

Scale Comparison With 28 mm Mini

The photo show the 'to scale' 40mm high Doctor model with a 28 mm 'wargame style' Warlord Games Bolt Action metal mini.

Rose Tyler is next.


Disclaimer: I wrote the as yet unpublished Doctor Who "Into The Time Vortex" wargame rules for Warlord Games

Dr Who: Into The Time Vortex

Now that production is well under way, those delightful people at Warlord Games have sent me examples of the first models.

To remind people, I wrote the rulebook that will eventually be released to back these models. Working with a major IP property like Dr Who is an extremely complicated affair with many people having to approve of all steps, so this takes time.

When it came to naming the game, we thought long and hard. There have been a number of Dr Who tabletop games before so we couldn't just use a 'does what it says on the label' name like Doctor Who Tabletop Game.

I suggested "Into the Vortex": it may not be entirely coincidental that I had just finished writing a novel plotted by David Drake and called "Into the Maelstrom".....see my sidebar, top right..

Paul Sawyer of Warlord Games smiled upon the idea but felt that any Doctor Who game must include 'Time' in the title......so we settled on "Into the Time Vortex".

Paul was editor of White Dwarf in its glory days and thinks much more graphically than I do and I have to say I very much like the way the title is displayed....I suspect the game will just be known as 'Time Vortex'.

The way the models are painted by the professionals at Warlord is subject to BBC approval, like everything else about the game but we amateurs can paint our minis any way we like.

I therefore intend to paint these amazing models and put them up on this blog, so it can be seen what a truly mediocre painter can do.

Doctor Who - The Starship Mary-Rose

The Doctor and Rose board the wrecked Starship Mary-Rose to find a datadump with the location of the Rice Pudding Graveyard. Expecting trouble, the Doctor is accompanied by a small group of World War II reenactors. He has taken the precaution of reactivating their weapons so that they work: in fact they work rather better than the originals!

And trouble is a-coming: a Dalek with pig slave.

The boards are from a new GW game and represent a wrecked ship's interior. So there are lots of vertical walls, corridors and rooms. It's not open space.

A burst from a Dalek Agent's sub-blaster past the Doctor's left ear is the first sign that he has been rumbled.

The real 'Big-Bad' is revealed. The Master is also wants unlimited rice pudding and has sacrificed some of his minions to get into the datadump room. A hail of shots from the reenactors takes out the agent and, astonishingly, a Dalek when a freak shot goes right down it's eye stalk.

'My vision is impaireeeed'

The blinded Dalek drives straight into a corridor wall at high speed and explodes: they do keep doing that.

The Doctor and Rose break into the datadump room but The Master is waiting. The Doctor downloads the data with his sonic screwdriver. Meanwhile The Master knocks Rose down and threatens her with his laser-screwdriver.

'The data or the mayfly gets it, Doctoooor."

A hail of blaster bursts from the surviving reenactors, who have taken out the last Dalek with a grenade down the hatch, knocks down the pig-slave and distracts The Master so that the Doctor can rush him, defeat him in hand-to-screwdriver combat, and rescue Rose.

While the Doctor tends Rose's injuries, The Master recovers and slips away. There will be other opportunities.

Another adventure for Rose and the Doctor ends in triumph.

Ta-ra!

Dr Who Miniatures Game- Zygons

For a 3D rotatable image: click here.

I had better press on and write the Zygon Rules!

Cyber Patrol

"Inruders indicated in Cybercomplex 967. Cyber Patrol Echo33

9 will investigate."

Advance.

Intruder destroyed after ferocious firefight for the loss of one Cyberman.

More Cybermen destroyed in an ambush.

And then................

The 30th Doctor

A friend sent me this photo that he'd taken at our last game. I think he's trying to tell me something.

Dr Who Miniatures Game

Warlord Games and the BBC announce a tie up to produce a new licenced Dr Who Miniatures Game.

"Warlord Games is absolutely delighted to have secured the licence to produce a miniatures game based on the BBC's enormously popular TV series, Doctor Who (back on BBC One on September 19th!). So delighted we might just have a celebratory jelly baby.
As lifelong Doctor Who fans ourselves, we are extremely pleased to have the chance to bring this iconic series to the tabletop with a game system you all know and love as well as the official range of miniatures to complement it.
The licence covers not just the latest series of Doctor Who but encompasses all of the Doctors, their companions and their foes. So, expect to see Sea Devils as much as Weeping Angels, Leela as much as Martha Jones, and a long, brightly coloured scarf as much as a fez (fezzes are cool, by the way...)."

And I am equally proud and delighted that Warlord Games have selected the writer!

I watched the first ever Dr Who programme as a little boy when it was broadcast in 1963 and have been a fan ever since. Incidentally, we did hide behind the sofa when the Daleks arrived. We were much less sophisticated in those days.

Quick Draw: Go for your...Sonic Screwdriver, Pardner

I rather think the Master has won this one!

Some modern Time Lords duke it out.

I think these are Heresy Miniatures.

General Staal, 10th Sontaran Fleet

Cloned warriorsfrom a high gravity moon, the Sontarans waged eternal war against the Rutan Host throughout Mutter's Spiral (the Milky Way).

Model from Heresy Miniatures, who currently have a 20% off sale - taps nose meaningfully.

Blink!

Some Weeping Angels, from Crooked Dice.

Club Night: In Her Majesty's Name

Popped around to the Medway Club yesterday for a game of In Her Majesty's Name.

The above photo shows Mik's Green Martian leader kitbashed from GW bits. He has done a superb job blending the four arms.

A picture of the game in progress, Mik is on the right.

I brought my Thule Group for their first outing and was soundly thrashed by a Chinese Tong. The Baron was not amused.

I really like IHMN. It's a simple, flexible, playable system with a great deal of tactical skill.

The guys behind our table were playing The Five Doctors using the DWMG system which is still available free here from the same guys who have brought us 7TV.

Terrific terrain!

Chugger

"You will give generously or you will be exterminated."

Any chance of an upgrade?

Having just had the remains of a broken tooth drilled out, I think it is time I swapped my tatty old body for a new model.


Or how about this?

John's Day Off

John's Day Off

Today was my day off from writing so I decided to take a short trip.

Torchwood

Whi is this immortal time traveler disguised as a WWII RAF Officer?
I think we should be told.

'Ello, 'ello, 'ello

This doesn't look like Ealing, Doctor?

The Great Dr Who Paperchase

Let the paperchase begin!

Dr Who Magazine are giving away a free army of weeping angels.

Road Sign

Road sign in Cardiff, just in case the Daleks get lost on the way to the BBC studios.